cognitive control Flashcards
Frontal lobe syndrome
characterized by a pattern of behavioural deficits in various aspects of control
Lateral PFC associated with
control
Medial/orbital PFC
seems to be associated with emotion and decision making
Utilization behaviour/syndrome
an exaggerated tendency to have behaviour shaped by the external environment, in which unintentional and/or unconscious actions are triggered by the immediate environment
Imitation behaviour
spontaneous copying of movements, gestures, etc. (could mirror neurons be involved?)
Wisconsin Card-Sorting Task (WCST)
This involves a deck of cards with various properties (shape, colour, etc.) that need to be attended to in order to successfully perform particular rule-based tasks (e.g. sorting by colour)The rule-based task changes from time to time, which requires an ‘updating’ of behaviour based on the latest change
Perseveration errors (WCST)
Involve difficulty changing a behavioural set that has already been learned/reinforced yet is no longer relevant
Perseveration errors (WCST) may reflect
failure of inhibition, Some patients could actually (accurately) identify whether or not they were making the correct move, yet were unable to stop themselves during an in-progress error
Measuring Neurological Deficits 2 effects
Difficulty filtering out irrelevant information, Difficulty selecting relevant information
Piaget attributed the A-not-B error to a lack of
object permanence
object permanence
an understanding that objects continue to exist, in a similar location/state, after we stop attending to them
It has also been proposed that the A-not-B error might be conceived of as a failure of
working memory
The Ne/ERN is thought to be generated in the
dorsomedial frontal cortex (dmFC), which includes the posterior anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
situations in which we would expect error signals related to performance monitoring
Pre-response conflict, Decision uncertainty, Response error, Negative feedback
Pre-response conflict
occurs when a stimuli activates multiple response tendencies (e.g. the stroop effect)
Decision uncertainty
lack of confidence in a decision
Response error
an error made with some level of awareness
Negative feedback
being told you have made a mistake
There may be two ‘subtypes’ of ERN
Response ERN, Feedback ERN
Response ERN
occurs without feedback
Feedback ERN
peaks ~250-300 ms after feedback indicating a mistake
what makes the PFC special 3 things
- Sustained activity that can overcome potentially interfering signals from other parts of the brain
- Capacity to effectively modulate other cortical areas
- Ability to rapidly update activity patterns (e.g. learn/implement a new rule
Midbrain dopaminergic neurons
demonstrate several potentially relevant properties that may assist them with sending relevant signals to the PFC for the purpose of controlling behaviour
Midbrain dopaminergic neurons
Receive information related to sensory input, Are highly plastic (and can be very responsive to learning for that reason)
Why could a reward prediction error signal be adaptive
Predicting future events, including outcomes/consequences (e.g. reward), and comparing those predictions to actual outcomes can help shape behaviour to be more constructiv
unilateral neglect
While associated with lots of variability across patients, generally involves a lack of awareness of information on the side contralateral to the damage
unilateral neglect brain areas
temporoparietal junction (TPJ), frontal eye fields (FEF), or the caudate nucleus
does unilateral neglect extend to memory
yes
How else might we explain neglect (besides simply being related to attention
Perhaps it could be better explained/described as involving a deficit in intention, and/or motor planning, rather than attention
‘premotor theory of attention
proposes that what we think of as attention can be understood simply as an extension of the motor system (and relates to planning, e.g. preparing to make an eye movement, reach for something, etc.)
what accounts for this apparent ‘amplification’ effect on attention, evident in ERP studies
- More neurons responded while attending
2. The same neurons responded while attending, yet fired more vigorously
Attention can also involve a
spatial component
overt attention
refers to attention that is coupled to eye-movements (e.g. shifts in attention related to eye movements),
covert attention
involves shifts in attention that are ‘decoupled’ (unrelated) to eye-movements
